Publication : Delphine Louis-Dimitrov et Estelle Murail (dir.), The Persistence of the Soul in Literature, Art and Politics, Palgrave Macmillan, December 2023, XVIII + 281 pages.

 

L’âme n’a cessé d’irriguer les représentations littéraires, artistiques et politiques, tout en restant peu présente dans les champs académiques concernés. Cet ouvrage espère mettre en lumière la persistance de ce concept dans les humanités et la façon dont il a été exploré par des auteurs et artistes du monde anglophone. L’âme y est étudiée au fil d’un corpus allant du 17e siècle à nos jours et rassemblant des auteurs et artistes du monde anglophone.

Cet ouvrage, dirigé par Delphine Louis-Dimitrov et Estelle Murail, fait suite au colloque « Persisting Souls » organisé à l’ICP en 2019 avec la collaboration du LARCA (UMR 8225 CNRS, Université Paris Cité).

 

 Site de l’éditeur (ebook disponible)

About this book

This book analyses the evolution of literary and artistic representations of the soul, exploring its development through different time periods. The volume combines literary, aesthetic, ethical, and political considerations of the soul in texts and works of art from the seventeenth to the twenty-first centuries, spanning cultures and schools of thought. Drawing on philosophical, religious and psychological theories of the soul, it emphasizes the far-reaching and enduring epistemological function of the concept in literature, art and politics. The authors argue that the concept of the soul has shaped the understanding of human life and persistently irrigated cultural productions. They show how the concept of soul was explored and redefined by writers and artists, remaining relevant even as it became removed from its ancient or Christian origins.

La table des matières est la suivante :

1 Introduction. Rewriting the Soul: The Persistence of a Concept

Jacques Arènes, Delphine Louis-Dimitrov, Estelle Murail, p. 1-26

Part I Writing the Soul

2 Egyptian Souls in Victorian Minds: The Transmigration of the “Ka” in Egyptianising Fiction

Nolwenn Corriou, p. 29-47

3 E. S. Dallas’s Literary Theory: The “Hidden Soul” and the Workings of the Imagination

Thalia Trigoni, p. 49-66

4 “You Haven’t Let Me Call My Soul My Own”: Soul, Psyche and the Thrill of Nothingness in May Sinclair’s Mary Olivier: A Life

Leslie de Bont, p. 67-82

5 Spectrality and Narrative Form in George Saunders’s Lincoln in the Bardo

Stefanie Weymann-Teschke, p. 83-99

6 Forging in the Smithy of David Foster Wallace’s Postmodern Soul

Béatrice Pire, p. 101-115

Part II The Aesthetics of the Soul

7 Transmutations of the Soul: Anima and Her Heart in Christopher Harvey’s School of the Heart (1647)

Émilie Jehl, p. 119-136

8 Let Us Go Forward: The Soul, Spiritualism, and the Funerary Commemoration of Richard Cosway, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, and Evelyn De Morgan

Cherry Sandover, p. 137-153

9 Dancing the American Soul: Secular and Sacred Motifs in the Choreographic American Renaissance

Adeline Chevrier-Bosseau, p. 155-175

10 Casting the Soul: Antony Gormley’s Sculptures

Coralie Griffon, p. 177-196

11 Sweet Soul Music

Adrian Grafe, p. 197-209

Part III The Ethics and Politics of the Soul

12 Colliding Circles: Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Concept of the Soul Between Spiritual Self-Realization and Materialistic Expansion

Olga Thierbach-McLean, p. 213-228

13 “Souls on Board”: A Counter-History of Modern Mobility

Susan Zieger, p. 229-242

14 African American Women’s Literary Renaissance: A Template for Spiritual Fiction in the Twenty-First Century?

Claude Le Fustec, p. 243-258

15 Persisting Souls in a Persisting Myth: Appropriation and Transmigration in Ahmed Saadawi’s Frankenstein in Baghdad (2013)

Claire Wrobel, p. 259-274

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